Aug 28, 2025
If you wonder why Sacramento does such a lousy job with homelessness, consider those 102 acres on Meadowview Road.
The land behind the Job Corps Center encapsulates how City Hall deceives residents, squanders millions of dollars and lets a local social problem spiral into a national disgrace.
Those 102 acres are a snapshot of missed opportunities and political failures.
To find the story’s thread, I dug back to 1952. That’s when California decided to build a Highway Patrol training academy in South Sac.
Jun 28, 2025
One joy of being city manager is having everyone crawl through your pay package.
A city manager’s salary and benefits are posted in public. The manager makes good money but far less than the worst Kings player.
The shelf life of city managers and basketball scrubs can run about the same. As for responsibilities and consequences, there’s no contest.
Ambiguities over city manager pay vs. value make residents jealous, frustrated or both. Especially in Sacramento, where $420,684 flows to the city manager each year.
Is the city manager worth all that dough when homeless tents crowd sidewalks? Is anyone worth that much?
May 28, 2025
Bill Russell, philosopher and basketball legend, told me what he thought of Sacramento when he moved to town in 1987 to coach the Kings.
He said Sacramento was Fresno with a capitol.
I exaggerate when I say Russell moved here. He disliked Sacramento so much that he lived in Rancho Murieta, a golf community on Amador County’s doorstep.
Mar 28, 2025
The California Highway Patrol was trying something new. Something that needed plenty of open space, “including a range to train patrolmen to fire from moving cars and motorcycles,” CHP brass said.
They settled on 240 farm acres near M.F. Silva’s dairy. Dormitories, classrooms, a cafeteria and gym rose over the bean fields, plus an asphalt track and gun range.
The address was 2812 Meadowview Farm Road. It was 1952. The CHP was building its first permanent cadet academy, an elite school for traffic cops.
